In the 2003 NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons had the chance to take Carmelo Anthony, but elected to take Darko Miličić and they were blasted for it. The facts are that the team had actually won 50 games the previous season, coming off a trip to the Conference Finals, and were only selecting No. 2 because of a previous trade they had made involving Otis Thorpe.
Drafting a quality big man was the logical move because Ben Wallace was the only one of the starting five considered to not be young.. Not everybody agrees with that.
Ben Wallace certainly agreed with it.
During a recent appearance on a podcast, Wallace explained that the Pistons would’ve never won a title if they had drafted Carmelo. He explained that Darko knew what his role was, where as Melo would’ve came in and wanted to play right away and caused all types of trouble within the locker room.
